The Adventures of San
by cloudsdale
Summary: "But seeing the statue of Avatar Aang while steering into the dock, everything seemed hopeful. Well, until you almost get hit by lightning. Then you realize that maybe this isn't the place for you. And you might want to run." The tales of how San got from Ba Sing Se, to Republic City, to meeting his wife and eventually Mako and Bolin.
1. Chapter 1

Living in the lower rink of Ba Sing Se is never easy, or fun, or...well..._intelligent_. Don't get me wrong, there's exceptions. Take my friend Taichi for example. He's always fooling around and getting us (well, mostly me) in trouble.

"_I don't want you to be 'hanging' around with that trouble kid."_ my father always told me.

"_He has a name you know, and were just kids. We're supposed to mess around." _I know, I know, I was being rude and should respect my elders blah blah. But people should still have a say for things. One thing my father never really got.

"_I dont care, I don't want the...you know who…to be on us because of you and your shenanigans."_

"_Dear," _my mother broke in with the conversation. "_just let kids be kids" _her warm smile broke the tension. "_San be home before dark."_

that was one of the last times I ever played with Taichi.

About a month later I found out that he and his family left the city for good. He said he was simply visiting his aunt in Omashu, but we both knew that wasn't true.

Their flat was almost completely untouched besides pictures and small things.

I never exactly knew what happened, no one dares questions it, but we all know that it wasn't for a good thing.

But I like to think that he really did go to Omashu and he's happier there.

Because it's easier that way.

When I was ten I asked my father the one questioned he was seemingly to avoid.

My father dragged me with him to work at the fruit stand because my brother Chow said he was on break and hasn't come back in a good hour. It was mid afternoon so there wasn't much business (even though, according to my father, we had the 'best fruit on the block'). I think he was saying something about the lychee berries and this one customer who gave him a gold piece five years ago, I didn't really catch it.

"_Dad can I go to school" _oh spirits I was a dead man. He looked at me, not out of anger for asking an almost impossible question, but out of sheer shock. No one else had asked him this, no one in this family has even been out of the lower rink. How the hell was school in any range of questions.

He sounded surprisingly calm, "_You know San, school is expensive. Even if we did find a way to pay for it, it wouldn't be for very long. Maybe a year at most. What can you learn in a year?" _

Now, that annoyed me

"_I just want to read. It's no fun just hearing stories."_ I bit my tongue, I wanted to say "_more than you could ever teach me" _but then I'd end up disowned for all I know.

My father went silent, which is almost never a good thing.

"_Since when were you so keen about this.."_ he mumbled. "_only if you help out around here, we've got a lot of mouths to feed especially now that your uncle and his family is moving in and-"_ I was so happy I could've hugged him right there.

Of course, my father was never much of a touchy feely kind of guy, he was more like a rock. Cold and emotionless. Without rambling about how much of a hardass my father was, and how once, when I was eight and my brother five, stuck us in front of a boulder telling us

"_Don't come home until you move it." _I remember waiting for my brother until sunset because he would've cried if I just left him there.

"_I'm sorry" _He mumbled through tears. Oh spirits…

"_What's there to be sorry for, some people can and some can't" _Ah, the famous big brother comforting before the waterworks started to flood.

"_b-b-but I made you wait, why didn't you just leave?"_

"_you would've gotten lost again Chow." _no joke, until he was eight he wouldn't go anywhere by himself.

"_...no I wouldn't"_ he would always protest.

"_Let's just get home okay?"_


	2. Chapter 2

"_It's like there's so much more besides just...this"_ that was one of the things I'd always talk about since I learned about Avatar Aang's travels. He was just so _incredible_, now maybe I've been rambling. Now maybe I'm like the old man telling you about my life story because somehow you got stuck volunteering at the old people home after your father slipped you a couple yuans and said "_It'll look good". _But truly, I thought there was always something more. Yet I was practically trapped there.

"_Avatar Aang saved the world in less than a year"_ I'd say. "_why is it so impossible to take off for a new life." _or "_if a blind girl can create metalbending, why can't I do something great?"_

My mother would just smile a smile that could melt the South Pole and say "_as long as you're happy"_

But, one time, I was reading to my little cousins. I was nineteen at the time and they kept persisting, "_San, read the one with the moon spirit and the princess."_

"_You want to hear about Yue? I told you that one last time." _I smiled that smile you give to little kids. I swear I've told that story so much that it's like a part of me. "_Say, did i tell you about the Library?" _a small roar of "no"s and "what happened?" were interrupted by the pessimist in the room.

"_Why bother, they're all just tall tales anyway. It's not like any of them happened anyway."_

"_Then explain how the Avatar-"_

"_Avatar this and Avatar that why don't you grow up San."_

At that moment I decided to have a death wish.

"_No, I won't."_ the apartment got silent, attention shifted toward my father and I. "_I won't, I'm an adult and I can decide what I do and do not believe. Maybe It seems silly, but I don't want you to dictate my life. Believe me we have enough dictators around here. Maybe I want to travel the world. I could be a Pro-Bender or be successful in Republic City." _everything around me started to feel hot and claustrophobic.

"_You'll work the fruit stand, you already have a life-"_

"_Well maybe it's not one worth living!" _I took a sharp breath, I didn't know where this was going but it certainly wasn't a good thing. "_I have a passport and ticket out of this place." _I wasn't regretting anything, but I still had a pit in my stomach.

The next bit is all just a blur, but I do remember my mother crying and telling her softly "_I'm sorry"_

And just before I walked out the door, I felt a tug on my shirt.

"_But San," _my cousin looked up with big green orbs, glossy like she was about to cry. "_What happened with the Library?"_

I forced a smile on myself and said "_There's a secret library somewhere deep under the desert, it has all the knowledge you could ever need…"_

I sat down, and this time everyone listened.

Because we all knew this would be the last time we would hear from each other.


	3. Chapter 3

I had on my best clothes that I saved for special occasions (which hasn't been since the Earth Queen's birthday, and it was rumored that she might visit the lower rink. My mother bought all of us nicer clothes "_just in case"_) to look like just maybe I was from the middle rink, or perhaps I was from the university strolling along to visit family or something. Anything to make the fake passport look more real.

"_Papers?" _The strict man in uniform asked me, as the other one stared at me with prying eyes.

"_Got anyone coming with you?" _he asked

"_no sir"_ don't get on there bad side, don't get on their bad side…

"_Hey kid," _the other guard, the one staring at me, interjected. "_can you bend?"_

"_y-yes sir" _he kept staring at me, spirits was this awkward. "_a-about a third of the city can…"_

"_Huh, you're tellin' me." _he half smiled at me and the first guard handed me my papers saying "_you can go". _and they bent an opening in the wall big enough for a person to walk by.

I looked at the valley, never knowing something could be this open.

"_Republic City here I come."_

I've been walking for a good hour and the outside wall still seemed as big as it does.

Okay, so maybe traveling across the earth kingdom seemed easier in my head.

"_Why didn't I take the train out of here."_

After six days bunking in the steerage of a ship with a large water tribe family, who was always asking, "_We're not bothering you are we" _while I always responded with "_No it's fine,"_

almost a week of being in too close quarters with each other, hearing the same stories over and over, can change a man. But seeing the statue of Avatar Aang while steering into the dock, everything seemed hopeful.

Well, until you almost get hit by lightning.

Then you realize that maybe this isn't the place for you.

And you might want to run.

_((sorry for a short one, I was busy with end of semester stuff….actually I was watching anime, but that too. Anyway, in recent new there's more canon names for unnamed characters like Asami's mom and mako and bolin's mother, grandfather, aunt okay a good handful of people. Anyway, thanks and review it always makes me feel awkward but happy)) _


End file.
